Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Massive multiplayer game for blind people (self.Blind)
submitted 9y ago by BlackCatTiramisu
Hello!
I am the creator of a massive multiplayer game and today I had an interesting idea.
What if I make a alternative game client, especifically designed for blind people?
While my game is actually 3D, most of the concepts would work just with text/audio, like the battles, that are mostly menu and text based.
I already have though of many solutions for problems that would appear.
So I think this idea could be great, I never heard of games for blind people, not even sure what kind of offers are there.
My only question, would there be enough users to justify making this?
It would took around 2 or 3 months of work, since a big part of the game code can be reused.
Note that while the game is a massive multiplayer rpg, it can also be played in single player mode, even in devices without internet.
Anyone here interested or know anyone that would like to play this game?
I forgot, the game itself it is about travelling around a huge world capturing monsters, and then training them and battling.
The visual part of travelling part can be replaced with interesting descriptions of each location, along with options to move the player around (eg: go to the potion shop).
A quick search on google revealed that there are at least 2 million blind people with access to internet, so in theory, I guess I could find at least 50 or more people interested?
I will go with this project forward if there are enough people interested.
Please tell me your opinions, thanks!
I am the creator of a massive multiplayer game and today I had an interesting idea.
What if I make a alternative game client, especifically designed for blind people?
While my game is actually 3D, most of the concepts would work just with text/audio, like the battles, that are mostly menu and text based.
I already have though of many solutions for problems that would appear.
So I think this idea could be great, I never heard of games for blind people, not even sure what kind of offers are there.
My only question, would there be enough users to justify making this?
It would took around 2 or 3 months of work, since a big part of the game code can be reused.
Note that while the game is a massive multiplayer rpg, it can also be played in single player mode, even in devices without internet.
Anyone here interested or know anyone that would like to play this game?
I forgot, the game itself it is about travelling around a huge world capturing monsters, and then training them and battling.
The visual part of travelling part can be replaced with interesting descriptions of each location, along with options to move the player around (eg: go to the potion shop).
A quick search on google revealed that there are at least 2 million blind people with access to internet, so in theory, I guess I could find at least 50 or more people interested?
I will go with this project forward if there are enough people interested.
Please tell me your opinions, thanks!
[deleted] 2 points
low vision person here; I would personally really love it, but I can't say there would be enough demand. There may be 2 million blind/visually impaired people who have access to the internet, but only a very small fraction of those play games. It might be a fun "volunteer" project you could work on in your spare time, because I don't see you making enough money off of it, if you spent a few month f/t doing it. I really hope you decide to do it !
BlackCatTiramisu [OP] 1 points
Hi, thanks for your input!
I contacted the blind association in my country, and tomorrow I will have a meeting with them, they seemed interested.
I'm doing this more because it seems a fun side-project, where I can try lots of new tech (for me), like text to speech and so on.
If I have more news about this I will post here :)
I contacted the blind association in my country, and tomorrow I will have a meeting with them, they seemed interested.
I'm doing this more because it seems a fun side-project, where I can try lots of new tech (for me), like text to speech and so on.
If I have more news about this I will post here :)
travelbymap 2 points
Sighted user here. The blind sub-reddit tends to be fairly empty, my guess is due to the difficulty of making its format accessible to basic screen-readers. Anyways, even though I'm sighted, I'll throw my two cents in.
There is a market for blind individuals out who enjoy gaming, but probably the majority of the population is used to being largely ignored by the game industry. Because of this, even if you are able to make a successful, accessible audiogame, you may have a hard time finding users. That's not to say that they're not out there, however, and it's not to say that you shouldn't seek them out!
If you're interested in the subject of audiogames, I'd refer you to $1. It mostly profiles an audiogame called *Swamp* (the article says, "You can think of it as Left 4 Dead for the blind"), but also touches on some larger themes of what it means to be blind in a sighted-gamers world.
If you're a software developer and you want to make accessible products you should really make sure you have a good grasp of at least two technologies - JAWS (PC), and VoiceOver (Apple). Macbooks have another screen-reader built into them, I think, but I have no experience using it, nor do I have experience using the Android screen-reader.
I hope some of this info is helpful, usually I'm just a lurker on /r/blind, but I hate seeing quality questions go unanswered here.
There is a market for blind individuals out who enjoy gaming, but probably the majority of the population is used to being largely ignored by the game industry. Because of this, even if you are able to make a successful, accessible audiogame, you may have a hard time finding users. That's not to say that they're not out there, however, and it's not to say that you shouldn't seek them out!
If you're interested in the subject of audiogames, I'd refer you to $1. It mostly profiles an audiogame called *Swamp* (the article says, "You can think of it as Left 4 Dead for the blind"), but also touches on some larger themes of what it means to be blind in a sighted-gamers world.
If you're a software developer and you want to make accessible products you should really make sure you have a good grasp of at least two technologies - JAWS (PC), and VoiceOver (Apple). Macbooks have another screen-reader built into them, I think, but I have no experience using it, nor do I have experience using the Android screen-reader.
I hope some of this info is helpful, usually I'm just a lurker on /r/blind, but I hate seeing quality questions go unanswered here.
BlackCatTiramisu [OP] 2 points
Hi, thanks for your feedback, lots of useful info!
Yeah, I guess the market is there, the problem is finding users. I'll try contacting some websites, to see if they can put in me contact with the right people.
Yeah, I guess the market is there, the problem is finding users. I'll try contacting some websites, to see if they can put in me contact with the right people.
Nighthawk321 1 points
you know, it would be a good idea to talk to the creator of swamp. his name on the audio games forum is aprone. he is an amazing coder and could most likely answer all of your questions. he is currently making more updates and patches for swamp, but he is also working on a different multiplayer game that should have aspects of mind craft. after that, i hurd he is going to make a massive multiplayer rpg. if you go on the forums and go under new releases, you can find the swamp forum and send aprone a private message.
parham90 1 points
Hi,
Blind programmer here. Unfortunately, most of the information you are receiving in this thread is wrong. I'll tell you why below:
* There are a very large number of blind gamers. You can check out $1 and $1 for IOS and PC games, respectively. If you so much as copy-paste your post on the AudioGames forum, you will get a lot of enthusiastic responses, help offers, and much more.
* Jaws is not the only screen reader used. The open-source $1 alternative has gained a tremendous following throughout the last three years. The fact that it's open-source means that you can download and use, instantly. As for IOS and OS X, Apple has a built-in screen reader called VoiceOver (as a person kindly noted). As for Linux, there is Gnome Orca that is not as polished, but still has good features for Linux users.
Hope this helps.
Blind programmer here. Unfortunately, most of the information you are receiving in this thread is wrong. I'll tell you why below:
* There are a very large number of blind gamers. You can check out $1 and $1 for IOS and PC games, respectively. If you so much as copy-paste your post on the AudioGames forum, you will get a lot of enthusiastic responses, help offers, and much more.
* Jaws is not the only screen reader used. The open-source $1 alternative has gained a tremendous following throughout the last three years. The fact that it's open-source means that you can download and use, instantly. As for IOS and OS X, Apple has a built-in screen reader called VoiceOver (as a person kindly noted). As for Linux, there is Gnome Orca that is not as polished, but still has good features for Linux users.
Hope this helps.
BlackCatTiramisu [OP] 1 points
Hi, really useful information, I will look on those forums, thanks!
I'm not sure if a normal screen reader would work with this game as it is, as the game does display the text directly throught the graphics card instead, for better performance.
I will see what I can do, again, thanks for your input!
I'm not sure if a normal screen reader would work with this game as it is, as the game does display the text directly throught the graphics card instead, for better performance.
I will see what I can do, again, thanks for your input!
parham90 1 points
No problem!
I'm not sure if it would work (I haven't tried to see if the hooks different screen readers use are bypassed when you pass text straight to the graphics card). However, if all else fails, you can always self-voice your application using Microsoft SAPI 5. That is not a favorable approach since it's not as customizable as a screen reader by the end-user, but it does exist as an option.
I'm not sure if it would work (I haven't tried to see if the hooks different screen readers use are bypassed when you pass text straight to the graphics card). However, if all else fails, you can always self-voice your application using Microsoft SAPI 5. That is not a favorable approach since it's not as customizable as a screen reader by the end-user, but it does exist as an option.
BlackCatTiramisu [OP] 1 points
Yes, I think that it probably could not work, as all text in-game is done using custom rendering, all goes straight to the graphics card.
Could you explain what kind of differences in customization there is in more common screen readers vs using a text-to-speech like Microsoft SAPI?
Could you explain what kind of differences in customization there is in more common screen readers vs using a text-to-speech like Microsoft SAPI?
parham90 2 points
Well, screen readers have a familiar interface for the end-user. They know what hotkeys to use to review the screen (I.E. read by line, word, character, paragraph, etc), how to pause or stop speech (pausing is different as you probably know, since it allows you to resume later on). The voice is also the voice they use for their screen readers; they are already used to it and not all of those voices have a SAPI equivalent.
However, all of these screen readers have APIs, as you'd expect. So, you could also pipe the output to those APIs and let the screen reader take care of the rest. However, that would leave the reviewing of text out, because text piped straight to the screen reader is just said and disappears.
Of course, if there is not much text in your game (something like $1), then you'll be fine just piping it to the screen reader's API.
However, all of these screen readers have APIs, as you'd expect. So, you could also pipe the output to those APIs and let the screen reader take care of the rest. However, that would leave the reviewing of text out, because text piped straight to the screen reader is just said and disappears.
Of course, if there is not much text in your game (something like $1), then you'll be fine just piping it to the screen reader's API.
Nighthawk321 1 points
hey there. i am also blind and i play swamp, and just about any other audio game there is to play that is actually decent. i cant tell you how many blind friends i have who would play this game, as long as its not a side scroller, blind people hate those now because developers are to lazy to code anything better. i can answer allllll your questions about screen readers and such. send me a private message if your intereted in hearing what i have to say, or just post on here. swamp is the only game i am currently playing, but i cant tell you how many blind people want another game that is main stream. you might not be aware, but some blind people are so desperate that we play main stream games. if you do go through with this, please do not make any aspect of the game easier for us lol. and one more thing, NVDA is becoming the main screen reader that blind people are using, since jaws is a piece of shit haha.
BlackCatTiramisu [OP] 1 points
Hi, thanks for your answer!
I had a meeting with the blind association from my country, they told me that this game could be very cool since it would allow blind people to interact with everyone else.
Since this is an role playing game, it does not have any kind of fast action, but yeah, a side scroller would not really work I think!
If you want I can actually send you some prototypes later so you can give your input.
Thanks about the NDVA tip, I only knew about jaws
I had a meeting with the blind association from my country, they told me that this game could be very cool since it would allow blind people to interact with everyone else.
Since this is an role playing game, it does not have any kind of fast action, but yeah, a side scroller would not really work I think!
If you want I can actually send you some prototypes later so you can give your input.
Thanks about the NDVA tip, I only knew about jaws
iheartbaconsalt 1 points
I can see a little...I'd love to test this.
Nighthawk321 1 points
no problem. do you mean like a bata tester, cus i have the time to. thats amazing that your making a rpg. but yeah, whenever you have any questions, just ask me and i may be able to answer them.
[deleted] 1 points
[deleted]
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